The latest public relations missive from Riyadh complains
bitterly that alarmist Americans "have gotten out of control" with
accusations that Saudi Arabia supports terrorism. But there is good
reason to state the opposite: That we ignore to our peril the degree to
which the Saudis spread extremist anti-Americanism. It is particularly
unsettling that the Saudis stoke such sentiments here, in our own
country. They do this by funding American outposts of the intolerant,
militant Wahhabi form of Islam.
The Saudis have poured an
astonishing sum of money into this effort. Reza F. Safa, author of
Inside Islam, estimated that since 1973, the Saudi government has spent
some $87 billion to promote Wahhabism in the United States and the
Western Hemisphere.
In some ways, such largesse is to be expected
from the Al-Saud. This old bellicose tribe - the only ruling family in
the world with the audacity to name a country after itself - owes much
to Wahhabism.
The Saudi regime first came to power via an 18th
century alliance between two Muhammads: ibn Saud and ibn al Wahhab.
Together, the Al-Saud and the Wahhabis commanded armies that vanquished
Arabia. They pledged to form a nation based on the principles of Islam.
In 1932, an Al-Saud warlord, Abdul Aziz, fulfilled his ancestor's dream;
he declared himself sovereign of his own newly conquered territories,
which he named the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Abdul Aziz adopted the
Islamic holy book, the Koran, as his nation's constitution.
To
this day, the official constitution of Saudi Arabia remains the Koran.
Saudi officials affirm that their government functions "in total
adherence to the Islamic religion."
This might be little more than
a political curiosity if not for two factors. First, that a geological
twist of fate gave Saudi Arabia considerable prominence in world
economic affairs. Secondly - and significantly - Islam is not content to
coexist peacefully with other faiths or systems of government.
Says
Bernard Lewis, widely recognized as the foremost Western scholar on
Islam: "In time, in the Muslim view, all mankind will accept Islam or
submit to Islamic rule."
Hence, while Saudi contributions toward American Islam are not surprising, they are deeply worrisome.
Of
that $87 billion religious propaganda budget, the Saudis have allocated
considerable line-item space toward institutions that mold minds in the
model of Wahhabism.
The most malleable minds belong to children. An estimated 30,000 of them attend Saudi-funded Wahhabi day schools.
In
America, parochial schools have long been noted for their high
educational standards. But Wahhabi schools do not emulate other American
church-based nativities of faith and knowledge; nor do they follow the
American model of rigorous intellectual inquiry.
The Islamic Saudi
Academy (ISA) in Northern Virginia forthrightly states that even though
it exists on U.S. soil, it is "subject to the government of the Kingdom
of Saudi Arabia."
Students at ISA are not required to study U.S. history or government. They do, however, receive instruction in Wahhabism.
Outsiders
are not permitted to observe Wahhabism lessons or any other classes at
ISA. But early this year, students at the academy told two Washington
Post reporters some of the things they learn at school. Among other
things, students discover the intricacies of Judgment Day.
One
event on that formidable day will be that Muslims will fight and kill
Jews. The cowardly Jews will seek refuge behind trees. Much like the
trees in the forest scene from the Wizard of Oz, these trees will become
animated and aggressive. They will call out to the righteous: "Oh
Muslim, Oh servant of God, here is a Jew hiding behind me. Come here and
kill him."
Students also said they are taught "it is better to
shun and even to dislike Christians, Jews and Shiite Muslims."
Furthermore, students learn, it is okay to hurt or steal from a
non-Muslim.
The Saudi-supplied textbooks at this and other Wahhabi
schools state that Muslims are obliged to consider all infidels the
enemy. Certain enemies are not even acknowledged in geography class.
Wahhabi schools in America are notorious for doctoring maps of the
Middle East, and hanging them in classrooms - with Israel blotted out.
Such is the curriculum of education-minded Saudis.
And what of the Saudis' contributions toward American mosques?
According
to Safa, the Saudis have funded more than 80 percent of the mosques
built in the United States within the last 20 years. The newcomers do
not embrace the American religious community's spirit of inter-faith
cooperation. They are distinctly isolationist. This attitude came to
light as early as the 1990's, when Wahhabi mosques in America refused to
accept help from local churches wanting to donate food to Bosnian
Muslims. Apparently Wahhabis will not work with infidels, even if the
purpose is to help other Muslims.
The Saudis, meanwhile, have directed considerable outreach toward the American Black Muslim community.
In
one effort to showcase the bounties of Wahhabism to this target
audience, the Saudis' enfeebled King Fahd pledged as much as $8 million
for a lavish mosque in shabby South Central Los Angeles. The Saudis'
Islamic Development Bank pledged an additional $295,000 for a school
attached to the mosque.
From the Saudi perspective, this and other
similar contributions are less an expense than an investment. According
to Safa, as much as 90 percent of American converts to Islam are black.
According to some estimates, if the conversion rate continues, Islam
could emerge as a dominant religion among urban blacks.
This is a
trend worth watching. Many of America's black Muslims have harshly
criticized America, and have deemed it an "immoral society."
Increasingly, black Muslims oppose U.S. foreign policy in the Middle
East, and are adopting a Saudi-influenced view of Arab-Israeli
relations.
Other Wahhabis in the U.S. advocate a Saudi-style
approach to American government. Insightful Saudi-watcher Daniel Pipes
reports that significant elements within American Islam seek to replace
our Constitution with the Koran. A ludicrous fantasy, to be sure; but
one that offers a glimpse of Wahhabi dreams for America.
Far more
troubling is the ease with which the Wahhabis use religion as a means to
express and stoke violent impulses. Indeed, in the days leading up to
Christmas, the Wahhabi on-line magazine Al-Islam published this
religious passage from the Koran: Against them make ready your strength
to the utmost of your power, including steeds of war, to strike terror
into (the hearts of) the enemies.... A particularly resonant selection,
given the events of September 2001.
In the aftermath of those
appalling attacks, Federal officials formed Operation Green Quest, aimed
at tracing the money trail to Islamic terrorism. In the course of their
investigation, agents raided more than a dozen Saudi-funded
organizations, such as the Graduate School of Islamic and Social
Sciences in Leesburg, Virginia.
Investigators are still working to
unravel the complicated network of financial ties between the various
organizations and their charities.
One targeted group, the SAAR
Foundation, had links to the Muslim Brotherhood, which is being
investigated by European and Middle Eastern governments for ties to
terrorist organizations, including the Palestinian Hamas. Among its many
other activities, SAAR, which is now officially disbanded, helped fund a
Tampa, Florida-based group suspected of having ties to the terrorist
Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
"It's like peeling an onion," said an intelligence officer familiar with Operation Green Quest. "There's always another layer."
The
organizations and their Saudi enablers proclaim both innocence and
ignorance. "To hear them tell it," the intelligence officer says,
"they're just a bunch of well-meaning religious folks."
As in the
days of old, though, when the two Mohammads acquired territory and power
via jihad, Wahhabis are as much about politics as they are about
religion.
Former CIA Director James Woolsey told Congress: "One
analogue for Wahhabism's political influence today might be the
extremely angry form taken by much of German nationalism in the period
after World War I." The former spy chief acknowledged that not all
extremists of the day became Nazis. But, he added: "Just as angry and
extreme German nationalism of that period was the soil in which Nazism
grew, Wahhabi Islamist extremism today is the soil in which al Qaeda and
its sister terrorist organizations are growing."
Much of that soil is spread across the United States. It hosts a nascent Wahhabi Fifth Column.
Political
commentator William Kristol couches the Saudi's export of Wahhabism -
via its funding of schools, mosques and think tanks in America - as "a
clear and present danger to the United States and its citizens."
America
must respond aggressively to that threat. Rather than accept continued
transparent professions of innocence, Americans must insist that the
Saudis immediately stop funding Wahhabi schools, mosques, charities and
think tanks in this country. We can no longer tolerate such an overt
onslaught on our national values.
Susan Katz Keating
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/1848135
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